Evolving news on the science, writing and thinking about Near Death Experiences (NDEs)

Watching Paint Dry

Well, some exciting news, the recruitment for the AWARE II study leapt by 33% recently to 4%. For those not good at math, it was previously 3%. Facetiousness aside, I am a little concerned and at the same time reassured.

I am concerned because at this rate I will be so old as to have an actual death experience before this study reports its final results, but reassured that it is still active and ongoing (entries are being made into the database). Also, as stated before, I am hopeful that the subjects being enrolled are more suitable by being 1. Alive, a big step forward from AWARE I, and 2. being in a position to actually see any projected images at the time of the event.

Meanwhile man continues on his self-destructive course, with the upper echelons of society thieving from those without the power or political influence to fight back; psychopaths of various religious and political extraction murdering defenceless civilians and the rest of us devouring resources that we believe are infinite while polluting the only home we have with complete disregard for future generations.

Ultimately we need a global shift in thinking, in behaviour, away from the material and towards the spiritual, and in my view this study has the potential to help foment that. However, such a change would only occur on the back of rock solid data arising from research that was conducted rigorously, and above reproach. Ultimately, my hope is that this is the reason why recruitment is so slow…every case has to meet sufficient criteria to withstand the scrutiny of modern science.

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10 thoughts on “Watching Paint Dry”

If we set the target number at 1000 patients for easy reckoning then he’s got 40 recruited. So 10-20 per cent (4 – 8 persons) of those should report an NDE but it’s not likely there will have been any OBE’s which is what we want of course. Then again, you just never know.

Yes, if the inclusion criteria are sufficiently robust, then yes, there should be at least 4 NDEs in there, and maybe even 1 OBE…but even if there is one, the chances of the person seeing or noticing the screen may not be very high. But let’s be optimistic. One day someone has to verify their OBE, and hopefully more than 1.

Bottom line, I believe in God, I have experienced him (for want of a better pronoun), and through my understanding of science I am absolutely convinced that life and the Universe is the result of intelligence. Surely it is not too much to ask that he gives us something to hold up to help show the world the true nature of our existance. A few verified OBEs would change modern thinking overnight.

Thanks for the reply, Ben. I already think they have been verified. There are just too many cases now for it to be as the “sceptics” would have it, some kind of confabulation or trick of the brain. I don’t need to list the cases, you will know them.
I think “God” ( I struggle with that word) already has sent people back (who recovered totally against the odds) but when they report what happened to them it never seems to make much difference. Even If Parnia gets some “hits,” the sceptics will find some problem with the protocol or throw super-psi at it, anything other than admit we have a soul (dirty word).

Even if it was proved to be ONLY a trick of the brain (which it isn’t of that I’m certain) does it really matter. The experience is so real, so totally convincing and satisfying how could anyone ever know the difference ?

I agree, they have already been verified, and in many ways why should we need to “prove” the testimony of so many credible people? It isn’t just the random firings of a dying brain, the experiences are not even remotely random, and the recollection by people is extremely lucid.

I do struggle with some of the more recent NDEs due to the fact that the phenomonen attracts so much attention now, but the early reports, and from a personal perspective, those of two people who I know who have told only a few trusted friends of their experience, and who I trust, have me totally convinced.

I know “God” is a word with negative feelings for some, but it is the word most people recognize as the name of the universal, creative conscious that people sometimes meet on the other side. That being is real, I have encountered “him” as have many many others in this life and on the other side.

We shouldn’t really need to “prove” people’s testimonies but I guess in the tradition of scientific enquiry there is a desire to get the “proof.”

The sceptical explanations (over 20 of them) are feeble but we must remember it’s very important to them that consciousness ceases after death, so any explanation is better (for them) than what the people who actually have the experience say it is.

I could cobble together dozens of NDE’s and make them convincing so you’re right we have to be careful not to get duped. That’s why I believe the details of the medical crisis that caused the NDE are very important but not everyone would agree with that.

I don’t have a problem with “God,” I believe in it/him/her I just cannot fathom the nature of such a being. I hope it will be made clear to me one day and If I’m wrong I will never know as they say. Have you had a NDE BTW ?

I agree about more recent reports, particularly from about 2008 onwards.
And I find it particularly disturbing the way the American christian have tried to coopt the experience, particularly insidious and distasteful.
And predictably, IANDs is rapidly devolving into a cult.

It all reminds me of when Alien abduction went mainstream in the 80s and 90s, and Deepak Chopra and his ilk exploited any promise the New Age movement had, and Hay Housed it…sigh

Myself, I tend to give creedence to earlier experiences. And my mums 😉

I promised I would address this particular publication in a new post, as it has got lost in a long and winding discussion that came out of the last post. Here is the link to the full text of the publication which was published in August this year: Link to PDF of paper on Researchgate […]

Thanks to one of the regular contributors for this reminder, but Dr Parnia tweeted for the first time in a very long time: I use the word illusive since he doesn’t really clarify what this means. Is this AWARE II, surely not as that is well under way now. Are these sub-studies of AWARE II? […]

Apologies for the long gap between posts, but I am still working on a new book that I will be publishing later this year. Anyway, this article really caught my attention: Science and the Soul “But I was wrong. Katie made me face my misunderstanding. She was a whole person. The child in my office […]

I came across this in my googling of NDE research, and I think it may have been mentioned in a previous chat (sorry for not calling out the person who mentioned it). Click on the link to access the pdf. It is free to download. Meditation-Induced Near-Death Experiences: a 3-Year Longitudinal Study William Van […]

Thanks to Samwise for posting this in the comments section of the last post. Again, I felt this was worth creating a seperate post out of since it is news about the AWARE study, and the last post was nearing a hundred comments, so time to move on. The link below is for a new […]

I am in the process of working on a review of the literature on evidence against NDEs being a genuine out of body phenomenon. The key piece of evidence relates to reports of brain activity after the heart has stopped. There have been reports in rats up to 30 seconds after death, and also in […]

Thanks to Eduardo for picking this one up. I am extremely busy at the moment so don’t always have the time to trawl the networks for anything Parnia or NDE related, so appreciate when others email me links or post them in discussions. I felt this was worth pulling out. It was aired earlier this […]

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” John 1:9 I usually avoid referencing my faith as I want this blog to focus objectively on the research around NDEs. However, in an era where I see my fellow Christians being persecuted on an ever larger scale, and the establishment doing its best […]

I finally received a response from Dr Parnia today to my questions. As I said previously, many of the questions had been answered in the various twitter posts he had created, specifically about numbers recruited so far, and timelines. There was a little more detail about the latter in the email. The announcement next year […]

Thanks Z for alerting me to Dr. Parnia’s new tweets (he tweets so rarely that I don’t check as often as I should). Some of my regular contributors in the comments section did caution me about getting excited and it turns out they were dead right. I sent an email to Dr Parnia asking him […]